Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Hold Rating for IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP)

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their hold rating on shares of IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup downgraded IPG Photonics from a neutral rating to a sell rating and decreased their price target for the company from $111.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Seaport Res Ptn reiterated a buy rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com downgraded IPG Photonics from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, February 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $110.40.

IPG Photonics Stock Performance

Shares of IPG Photonics stock opened at $86.76 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.97. IPG Photonics has a 52-week low of $80.33 and a 52-week high of $141.85. The firm has a market cap of $3.95 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 16.87 and a beta of 1.17.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $252.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $255.53 million. IPG Photonics had a return on equity of 7.67% and a net margin of 15.34%. IPG Photonics’s revenue for the quarter was down 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.26 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that IPG Photonics will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

IPG Photonics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, February 13th that authorizes the company to repurchase $300.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at IPG Photonics

In other IPG Photonics news, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total value of $70,368.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,472,646.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other IPG Photonics news, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total value of $70,368.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,472,646.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.56, for a total value of $895,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,209,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $645,691,686.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,788 shares of company stock valued at $2,595,508 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 37.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IPG Photonics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in IPG Photonics by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,039,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $308,587,000 after purchasing an additional 85,984 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in IPG Photonics by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 836,794 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $84,968,000 after purchasing an additional 73,182 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in IPG Photonics by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 789,991 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $85,750,000 after purchasing an additional 8,445 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in IPG Photonics in the 4th quarter worth about $70,719,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in IPG Photonics by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 388,257 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,141,000 after purchasing an additional 5,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.79% of the company’s stock.

About IPG Photonics

IPG Photonics Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells various high-performance fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, and diode lasers used in various applications primarily in materials processing worldwide. Its laser products include hybrid fiber-solid state lasers with green and ultraviolet wavelengths; fiber pigtailed packaged diodes and fiber coupled direct diode laser systems; high-energy pulsed lasers, multi-wavelength and tunable lasers, and single-polarization and single-frequency lasers; and high-power optical fiber delivery cables, fiber couplers, beam switches, chillers, scanners, and other accessories.